


Where Park and River Meet

by qwanderer



Category: Firefly, Leverage
Genre: Academy-related trauma, F/M, Firefly AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 16:35:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9665714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qwanderer/pseuds/qwanderer
Summary: River peered at her. "You stole yourself. Simon had to hire people to steal me back. But you stole yourself."She grinned. "Best thief in the 'verse."





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fatewalker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fatewalker/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Bent By Paths Coincident](https://archiveofourown.org/works/210507) by [Jedi Buttercup (jedibuttercup)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedibuttercup/pseuds/Jedi%20Buttercup). 



> Thank Iris Lefay Longbottom for this one, she read Bent By Paths Coincident after I bookmarked it and pointed out fatewalker's comment. She also suggested the title in jest (but I liked it, so there!), which is apparently a reference to one of the chapter titles in Anne of Green Gables or something.
> 
> How could I resist putting these two characters together?
> 
> I sort of imagine this 'verse merging Parker's brother and Sam Ford into one character.

Eliot brought his knives and his favorite skillet over to Serenity, and after him, like ducklings, trailed his captain, their engineer, and... whatever Parker was, on their crew. Their thief? Their Parker, anyways. 

Eliot had asked her if she remembered someone called River, from the same place she'd known Sam. 

Parker remembered a girl who moved like she didn't care who saw. 

After they'd killed Sam, Parker hadn't stayed long. Getting away... it was what she did. 

The woman who greeted them on the cargo ramp reminded her of Hardison. Joyful and enthusiastic about both people and machines. When Kaylee offered a tour of the ship, Eliot declined, saying he only really needed to get the lay of the kitchen. Hardison agreed, though, and Parker trailed after. 

They talked nuts and bolts and circuits, and Parker would have been jealous, except when they came through past the infirmary, she could read Kaylee's fluttering heart like an open book. 

Then, coming through the door into the kitchen, there was River. 

They froze, catching sight of each other. 

River, her feet were rooted in the deck plates, clinging to them, hurt and terrified. 

"Ow," Parker said. 

"You okay, Park?" Hardison asked. 

She nodded without looking away from River, and waved him on, into the kitchen. 

"You didn't break," said River. "You aren't broken. Why aren't you broken?" 

Parker frowned, thinking about this, about what she saw and what she remembered. "They crack people. Like nuts. I was already open. Just normal-like. Like a pistachio. I think they didn't expect that when they popped off the rest of my shell I'd still be okay enough to fight back." 

River peered at her. "You stole yourself. Simon had to hire people to steal me back. But you stole yourself." 

She grinned. "Best thief in the 'verse." 

"You left after Sam. You left because they hurt him." River's voice shook. "Did you hurt them back?" 

Parker leaned in to whisper, "I blew their brains to kingdom come." 

River's jaw worked, as if she were chewing on that. "How? How did you hurt them, without feeling it all yourself?" 

Parker cocked her head to one side. "Why wouldn't I want to?" 

River stared at her. "There is something _wrong_ with you," she told the thief. "Something that got bent crooked even before the blue hands got a hold of you." 

"You care," Parker commented. "About people. You just do. I always feel, but I don't always care." Her head tilted the other way. "You had a real family. You had someone who cared enough to steal you back." 

"They loved it when I danced," River agreed. "You never danced." She peered hard at Parker, now. "It was always be quiet, brat, keep hidden. Tiny as can be. Quiet as a mouse." 

"The hands weren't so much worse than where I was before." Parker nodded. "You broke so badly because they took something away from you. Something I never had." 

"You never danced," River said. "But... you want to." 

Parker's eyes went, seemingly of their own accord, to rest on Hardison, the Leverage's engineer, sometime pilot and master of the 'waves. 

"He sings to me," Parker said. "Sometimes." 

"They made you wear shoes heavier than the whole world." 

"It hurts." 

"To care, and know all of this. Yes." River nodded. It wasn't a question. It was speaking the words aloud because Parker needed them said, but couldn't say them. 

Some things, Parker had to say herself, though. "Will I break?" 

"Maybe, but if you have someone who will always steal you back, then maybe it's okay to break." 

"Huh," said Parker. She looked around at both their crews, talking and laughing together in the home carved out of a spaceship that was Serenity. "Yeah. Maybe it is." 


End file.
